LitnCivBlog3-50 funny writers-earlyblog1blog3

     The sections of The 30 Funniest American Writers as well as Thurber’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” were extremely interesting and odd. Despite their oddity, I welcomed the nice change from reading a Morreall’s textbook-like book. It was nice to read actual stories that contain a plot. But the stories were different than what I expected, and I was puzzled because they were not as funny as I expected and the plot was hard to follow.

     One short story I read was “The Ransom of Red Chief” by O. Henry. As I started reading, I was shocked to see that Bill and Sam sounded so rational about kidnapping someone. Bill said that they had the idea to kidnap a child during a “moment of temporary mental apparition,” I was sad to think that they possibly did the kidnapping because they were bored or because they just felt like kidnapping someone (Borowitz 11). The young kid’s extreme violence stuck out to me during the story. Some of his violent acts include throwing a brick at Bill’s face, attempting to scalp Bill, and even dropping a red-hot boiled potato down Bill’s back and then mashing it with his foot. I was deeply disturbed by these descriptions because if the child displayed such remorseless violence at a young age, imagine how violent he could be as an adult (Borowitz 12, 15, 17). Some of the story was humorous, such as the part where Ebenezer Dorset said that the kidnappers owe him $250 in order for the child to be out of their hands. That is not how a ransom works! The father is supposed to pay the kidnappers. I then chuckled because maybe he knew what a handful his son is, and he knew that the kidnappers would be willing to pay any amount to rid of the kid (Borowitz 24).

     The second story was “More Alarms at Night” by James Thurber. As I was reading, I became extremely curious as to why the son would choose to prank the father. Why not prank mother or his other brothers? Why not prank everyone? And I find it surprising that the family chose to believe Roy over the father. After all, Roy had a fever, and even though he was not delirious during the day, he could have easily become delirious during the night. Plus, Roy is a teenager, and teenagers love to prank people. With this knowledge, I would have believed the father over Roy (Borowitz 64-66). I shook my head when I the narrator freaked out over a city in New Jersey. Finding the name of a New Jersey city is not worth waking up someone at 3 AM. I felt bad for the father; he must have thought that his whole family went crazy. I think his family is crazy. I admit that I found the father running for cover to avoid the “madhouse” pretty funny. I remember laughing after reading this scene. And because of this scene and the less violent children, I liked this story better than “The Ransom of Red Chief” (Borowitz 68-69).

     Now the last short story, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” was extremely hard to follow. I was not sure whether or not all of these scenes were from the main character’s life. After reading the story, I read a summary of it online. Apparently, he was daydreaming. At first, I thought the man was crazy because of his elaborate and multiple daydreams, but then I realized that I daydream too. The main character daydreams about a Navy plane, being a surgeon, being on trial, and facing a firing squad. Sometimes, my dreams are as elaborate as his. Like the main character, I sometimes daydream to escape from real life. This helped me relate to the main character better. But I found the reading confusing because he flips flops from scenario to scenario, and from real life to a daydream. The story was all over the place, so I was puzzled. I wish the story was more organized, but maybe it is written to reflect how he daydreams and how he is all over the place mentally.

     It was interesting to see how humor is used in short stories. Although parts of these stories were disturbing or just plain confusing, I did find some parts humorous. Again, I do enjoy the nice change from reading a textbook on humor. I am interested to see what this book teaches me about humor, and if there are certain stories that will stand out to me because of their humor.